I believe that a very swift cut with a very sharp knife does not usually cause pain. I believe this because
- If I cut myself with a newly-sharpened knife, it doesn't hurt at the time I cut it, only later
- When our vet castrated three bullocks for us, he chose to do it without anaesthetic as he said it was more stressful and painful for the bullocks to have the anaesthetic administered and then wait until it took effect than to get cut very swiftly with a very sharp scalpel. And not one of the three showed any sign of noticing the operation occuring.
Many many years ago, I had a friend worked in Environmental Health, doing meat inspections. He had several Kosher and Muslim abbatoirs on his round. He said he wasn't upset at the Kosher slaughter, as there is a rule in Kosher slaughter that if any matter at all adheres to the knife, then the whole animal is deemed not Kosher and is waste. Therefore in the Kosher abbatoirs, the knives are extremely sharp, the process extremely quick and, as far as my friend could tell, painless.
For Halal slaughter, however, there is no such restriction and the knives were not always as sharp as you would want them to be for welfare reasons, he said. He had witnessed some horrendous scenes which I will not repeat here.
Since then, legislation was introduced to require the stunning of animals before slaughter. Until tonight I was not aware that there is a wholesale derogation of this requirement in the case of ritual slaughter in a licensed premises conducted by a licensed slaughterman/operative in the presence of a veterinary surgeon. I could not find any specifics on the training and licensing of such slaughter operatives, but am sure that it would include the minimisation of pain, suffering or awareness of the animals being slaughtered.
I have read up as much as I could find tonight on the Defra website and also a few articles on political websites and the Law Society website.
Taking a theoretical stance, I do of course agree that if we as a country believe a ritual slaughter is of a lower standard of animal welfare than a non-ritual one, then we should of course ban the non-stunning slaughtering. However, in practical terms, this would only drive the ritual slaughter underground and overseas.
Therefore, at the moment my working hypothesis is that it is preferable that animals destined for Kosher or Halal butchers should be killed in accordance with the current regulations, ie, "in a licensed premises conducted by a licensed slaughterman/operative in the presence of a veterinary surgeon" rather than the inevitable alternative were we to withdraw the derogation. The inevitable alternative being that animals destined for the Kosher or Halal butchers are slaughtered under less supervision and lower welfare standards away from the UK - quite possibly after being shipped alive from our ports to their deaths in unlicensed abbatoirs elsewhere.
On a personal level, we tend to sell by far the majority of our lambs directly to supermarket abbatoirs, or to our local butcher for whom we deliver them to the local abbatoir he and we use. After my researches tonight I am even less keen to sell our lambs through the auction ring.
The disposal of cast ewes and rams is more problemmatical. At the moment, the number of ewes who are "my sheep" as opposed to just members of the farm flock is small enough that I can state that none of my own ewes will be sold through a ring; we will take them to the abbatoir ourselves or have them slaughtered on farm. As to the rest, there is no direct sales outlet available, they will have to be sold through the auction ring. It is thinking about that has made me realise I would prefer to know that at least they would be headed for slaughter at "a licensed premises conducted by a licensed slaughterman/operative in the presence of a veterinary surgeon", rather than a boat taking them on who knows how long a journey to a possibly unregulated slaughter overseas.
We sell 97% of our cattle as stores, so cannot in any way influence their eventual destination. The same therefore applies as to cast ewes - I'd rather know they'd be killed as humanely as possible in this country than wonder if they'd end up shipped alive for ritual slaughter overseas. (BH has already been told that no Jersey bred here will ever leave the farm except to a home vetted and approved by myself - but that's because of specifically how Jersey cows are used by the industry and how Jersey meat bullocks could be treated.)
As so often, I have learned something because of TAS. Just at the moment, I rather wish I had continued in my previous state of ignorance
